by Ella Maven
“Sax,” I murmured.
He went still at the sound of his name, and then his dark eyes focused on me. They weren’t black, as I’d previously thought, but a dark purple. And earlier, when he’d been speaking more softly, they’d lightened to a pretty violet.
“Don’t do that,” he rasped. His lips curled back, revealing a gleaming set of white fangs.
A shiver traveled down my neck. “Don’t do what?”
“Don’t say my name. Or look at me.” His nostrils flared. “Or speak. And whatever you do, don’t touch me for fleck’s sake.”
“But why—?”
“Because you’re making my cock hard, and if one of the Uldani walks in here and sees that, we’re both flecked. Do you understand me?”
I reared back, only now noticing the bulge in his pants. A massive bulge. Oh God. I had more questions, so many more, but he’d told me not to speak. Which was fine because I was too terrified to muster words. He sat with his eyes closed while he rhythmically opened and closed his fists.
I tried to steady my breath and call up the training and experience I’d had dealing with trauma at my job. Yes, this was my own trauma, but God, I needed to try to be objective here or I’d go insane. Quick analysis: I wasn’t dying or seriously injured. That was good news. The bad news? Silver aliens apparently wanted to use my body to breed this blue alien’s children. And he seemed just as overwhelmed by this shitty news as I did. Before I could ask him if his reasons for freaking out were similar to mine, the door down the hall clanked open.
Sax immediately sprang to his feet. Those blades beneath his skin lifted, and I squeezed myself against the wall. At first I’d thought they were some sort of body modification, but now that I got a closer look at the blades that spanned from the top his head to the base of his tail, I realized they were a part of him—bones that could unsheathe from beneath his skin like hidden weapons. His silhouette was scary as hell, backlit by the lights from the hallway.
Two guards appeared in front of the bars. They were followed by two Uldani, as Sax had told me they were called, both wearing those jackets adorned with official-looking symbols.
“You decided to wake up from your nap to meet your new roommate, hmm?” The Uldani on the right wore a green sash across his jacket.
Sax didn’t respond.
“Now where’s that Sax humor we’ve all grown to know and love? I thought I’d at least get a thank you. We rewarded you for not escaping with your brother. There’s a pretty female to take your cock.”
“Fleck you,” Sax rumbled in a deep voice.
“Look, you’re alone. None of your males are here to judge you with those pesky Drixonian morals. You can go ahead and let your instincts go. Take her like a warrior should take his spoils.” The Uldani’s words cascaded down my spine like ice water.
Sax replied with the same words, same tone. I appreciated the basic fuck-you attitude because the Uldani were sickening. But they obviously had all the power. What would happen when they forced Sax to do their bidding?
“We can make you,” the Uldani said.
Sax snarled out, “You can try.”
The cell door opened, and Sax lunged. He didn’t get far. The guards latched poles onto his collar, holding him at a distance so his skin blades and tail were useless. Sax roared as the guards entered the cell, forcing Sax against the far wall. He yanked on a pole, and I thought he was going to get close enough to take a guard’s head off, but than an Uldani produced a metal rod. He flipped a switch on the rod’s side, and a hum filled the air.
“No!” I shouted, just as he plunged it into Sax’s side.
Sax’s blue body went rigid, and his mouth opened in a silent scream. The stench of burning flesh filled the air, and Sax’s limbs trembled so hard that his teeth clattered.
“Stop it!” I yelled.
I ran to the nearest Kulk and pounded my fists on his armor, not that it did much. I kicked, yanked, and pulled. The guard turned to me with a snarl, and, with a swift fist to the gut, sent me sailing into the wall. Pain streaked through my right hip as I crumpled to the ground and gasped for air.
A dull roar reached my ears, and I looked up to see Sax renew his struggles. His pitch-black eyes shifted from me to the guard who had struck me. Wrenching away from the rod at his side, he swung his tail whip-fast against the Kulk’s head. With a sickening crack, the Kulk’s head spun an unnatural one hundred and eighty degrees. The guard went down like a sack of potatoes, hitting the ground in a clash of armor and lifeless limbs.
The other guard gripped the pole that was fastened to Sax’s collar with two hands, struggling to hold Sax at a distance. It was no use. Sax jerked the pole, and as soon as the Kulk was within striking distance, Sax lashed out and sliced his forearm blades across the Kulk’s neck. He slid to the ground as blood spurted from his throat and coated the wall.
Sax whirled around, teeth bared and fangs dripping with saliva. But the Uldani weren’t fools. Both of them entered the cell holding shock-rods and plunged them into Sax’s chest. He arched his back and roared as the weapons coursed a current through his body, making him shake like he’d touched a live wire.
“Stop!” I cried weakly. I tried to stand, but the pain in my hip had made my right leg useless. Tears coursed down my face like tiny rivers. “You’re killing him!”
The Uldani turned to me with a sneer. He pulled his rod back and then plunged it into Sax’s neck. His eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. “You care whether he lives or dies?” the Uldani spat. “Then breed with him.”
They both yanked the rods away, and Sax’s body fell to the ground. His head bounced off the stone floor. Lifeless. I sobbed and crawled over to him. “Sax,” I called out as I drew closer. “Sax!” I touched his hair. His forehead. Sweat coated his skin and his color was a dull gray-blue. The places where they’d shocked him were blackened and oozing. A faint scent of smoke filled the air. “You killed him!” I shouted at the Uldani.
“We didn’t kill him.” The Uldani sniffed at me. “He can take a lot, we’ve learned. And he will. Repeatedly. Until he breeds you.”
As I lay huddled beside Sax’s prone body, the Uldani dragged the bodies of the dead guards out of the cell. One of them placed a tray in the corner, then slammed shut the cell door shut.
“We’ll be back,” the Uldani said. “When he wakes up, he’ll just be ready for more.” He tapped the rod against the cell bars and walked away without a backward glance at either of us.
I slid closer to Sax and laid his head in my lap. I sobbed. And sobbed. I’d never cried so hard. My tears dripped onto Sax’s face, mingling with dirt and sweat. He’d endured so much because he refused to rape me in front of those Uldani fuckers. Would he wake up and be angry with me? Would he decide enough was enough? No way could he survive being shocked like that again, as the Uldani had promised. While I cared for my own future, I found I also wanted to help Sax. He’d been kind to me, and he’d treated me like an actual person rather than just a womb.
I swiped at my eyes, sniffing a few more times before finally getting myself under control. I tested my hip joint, terrified it was broken, but found I could rotate it without screaming pain. Still, I knew I had to be careful with it. I crawled over to the tray they’d left in the corner. There was a large jug of the water-like substance and a few more of the peanut-scented bars. I drank a little and used the rest of the liquid to clean Sax’s wounds as best as I could. They were already clotting and scabbing over, and I assumed his healing abilities were much better than humans’.
I tried to get him to drink something, but he couldn’t swallow so the liquid dribbled from his mouth. God, I couldn’t imagine the pain he’d gone through, and yet he’d still managed to get free and kill two guards. Their bodies sat outside our cell, and I was a little concerned I felt nothing but satisfaction when I looked at them. What was this place turning me into?
I stroked Sax’s face, which was no longer pinched with pain. His lips were slightly part
ed, and his chest rose and fell with even breaths, rather than the rapid breathing from before. I checked his pulse on his wrist. It seemed fast, but I had no idea what his normal resting heart rate was.
I propped myself up against the wall, Sax’s head in my lap, and closed my eyes. I might have dozed off, but I jerked awake when I felt movement. I glanced down to see Sax’s purple eyes open and alert. Watching me. Pain lurked in every pinched crease of his face.
For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then my body bucked with renewed sobs. “I’m so sorry,” I cried, unable to stop the tears from flowing. Again. Fuck, I had to stop this, or I was going to re-dehydrate.
His eyes went wide, and he struggled to a sitting position. “Ch-ch-ch,” he chanted with an odd purr. He tugged me against his chest, tucked my face into his neck. “It’s okay, sweet Val. It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay,” I wailed. “They almost killed you.”
“They didn’t.”
He’d been shocked into a comatose state, yet when he woke, he comforted me. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been comforted. I was the strong caregiver. I’d always been.
I glared at him. “They did! It was horrible. Oh God. The way you shook. The smell. Sax, I can’t let you go through that again. I can’t!”
His teeth clenched. “You’ll have to.”
“Why?” I wiped my nose with the back of my hand. Fuck, I was a mess. What value did virtue have in this situation? Nothing. I’d spread my legs if it meant preventing Sax that horrible pain. “Maybe we should just do what they want. I—”
“No,” he barked so loudly that I startled. The shadows of pain had all but vanished from his eyes. “No. We will not give in. You must understand. I will die before they get their hands on any child with Drixonian blood.”
My spine straightened at the determination laced in his voice. “What do they want with this child?”
He sighed heavily. “It’s a long story.”
I glanced around. “Well, I guess we have time. Unless you need to rest.”
He spotted the tray in the corner. “We should eat. I will talk. Then we’ll rest.”
I nodded. “Yeah, sure. Okay.”
Between us, we quickly downed a few of the bars and drank most of the remaining clean jug of liquid, which Sax referred to as qua. Afterward, he leaned against the wall with a wince and prodded at the areas where he’d been shocked.
“I tried to clean them while you were passed out,” I explained. “All I had was the qua. I’d never wished for antibiotics so much in my life, and that counts the time I had a wicked sinus infection and I thought my face was going to fall off.”
He huffed what seemed like a laugh, and his lips curled up at the corners for a brief moment before falling back into a grim line. I wondered what he looked like when he smiled. What was he like when he wasn’t a tortured prisoner?
“They will heal. So, you wanted to know why they want my offspring. Well, my people used to work for the Uldani as guards and law enforcement. Like the Kulks do now.” He gestured toward the dead bodies. “We thought we were respected partners, but we soon learned we were more like servants. And then we learned they were holding some of us without our permission and experimenting on us. So, we led a rebellion and broke from their rule.”
“But why am I needed? Don’t you have females of your kind?”
His eyes closed, and he swallowed. When he focused on me, I saw a wealth of emotional pain lurking behind the purple depths of his eyes.
“A hundred and fifty sun-cycles ago, a virus killed all our females and most of our elder males. We cannot reproduce.”
My heart dropped, and I clutched my chest. “Oh God, that’s terrible.”
He nodded. “It is. That was how the Uldani were able to convince us to serve them. Our civilization had been ravaged by the virus. We agreed to travel to this planet, Corin, and work for them. After the Uprising, the remaining males separated into groups called clavases and live out east. In relative peace.”
“So, the Uldani have new guards, right? Why do they want you?”
He flexed his arms so that the tips of his blades rose from beneath his scales before settling back in. “Because Drixonian warriors are one of the most feared species in the galaxy. One of us is powerful.” His fingers curled into his thigh. “As a unit, we are nearly unstoppable.”
In the back of my mind, I knew the answer, but I needed it confirmed. “So, they want you to reproduce so they can…” I let my voice trail off.
“So, they can raise a new generation of Drixonian warriors who know nothing of our ways or values. Little ones with little minds that the Uldani can shape at their will.”
“Oh no,” I whispered.
“Which is why, sweet Val, I will endure what they do to me.” His words rang through the air like gun shots. “Every day. Until the day Fatas decides to take me from this world.” He bared his teeth, and his fangs glistened. “Because I will never, ever, let them get their hands on a creature with even an ounce of Drixonian blood.”
The reality of our situation hit me. Caving to the Uldani demands didn’t just mean I’d be forced to have sex with Sax. I’d potentially be creating a life that would know nothing but servitude, nothing of the proud ways of the warrior who sat before me. I had to think of more than myself. They didn’t just want my womb, they wanted what my womb would produce. My child. Sax’s words flooded through me and I placed a hand on my stomach. I hadn’t planned on children, but the thought of my baby in their hands sickened me. Sax was right, this wasn’t just about us, this was protecting a future life who had no way to fight.
“They won’t stop, will they?” I said, my eyes blurring with tears. How did I still have tears to cry? “If I give birth, they’ll want more.”
“To them, I’m a cock. And you’re a womb that can produce slaves.”
Oh God, those words hurt. They fell between us like boulders, huge and insurmountable.
“Sax,” I whispered. “What are we going to do? I can’t give them a child, but I can’t watch you go through this.”
He held out his hand, and I tentatively placed my palm in his. He wrapped his blue fingers around mine. “You will, brave Val. You’ll do it for me, for you, and for the life you’re saving. Do you understand?”
I choked out a sob. Fuck, I was tired of crying. “I do understand. But I hate it.”
He pulled me against him, and his chest heaved with a sigh. “I know.”
I lay my head on his scaled pecs. I expected him to feel like a snake, but he was softer, like steel-covered velvet. “Explain this Fatas to me that you mentioned. Is she like your God?”
“A God?”
“Um, someone you believe is the creator. On Earth, a lot of people believe God made people. We have free will, but people pray to him to ask him for things, like health and happiness.”
He frowned. “No, Fatas is not our God. She did not create us. We believe she blesses us or curses us based on our actions.”
“Ah, like karma, then. You’re rewarded for good deeds and punished for others.” I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Now, karma I believe in. I wish she would let me know what I did to end up in this hell.”
He was quiet for a long time, and when I glanced at his face, his eyes were closed. I thought he was asleep, until he said softly, “I wondered that too. And now I think I know why. Fatas put me here and tested my strength so I could be worthy of and blessed with you.”
I jerked back at his words. “What?”
He was asleep. Soft snores left his mouth. I didn’t wake him to ask more questions. He needed to heal, and the best thing for that was sleep.
As tired as I was, sleep didn’t come. I stayed awake for a long time thinking about Sax’s words. I’d been selfishly thinking he was sacrificing himself to protect me. Of course he wasn’t. He didn’t know me. He refused to give the Uldani what they wanted—a piece of him. Still, he’d been kind, and he’d killed the guard who hit me. His ra
ge at my pain had been evident. I’d met a hell of a lot of people in my line of work, and I thought I’d gotten pretty good at being a decent judge of character. Everything about Sax felt pure and truthful. And now he was doomed to suffer.
I had never been skilled at standing up for myself. I’d once worked an entire twelve-hour shift with excruciating jaw pain from an infected cavity, but I refused to stop because that meant letting down my coworkers. But whenever my patients needed me, I was more than happy to stand up to a doctor who wouldn’t prescribe pain meds or the correct dosage.
So tomorrow, I had to think of something. If not for myself, for Sax. For the unborn life he was so desperate to save and the remainder of his people he clearly loved.
Eventually, my eyelids began to close, and I curled up next to my big alien savior, needing the warmth of his body to combat the cold of the stone floor. I fell asleep, the sounds of his roars still ringing in my ears and the smell of his burned flesh in my nostrils.
Three
Sax
I awoke to the sound of a tray clattering in the cell. Opening my eyes, I saw a Kulk shutting the door. With another guard, he began dragging the dead bodies down the hall. They didn’t look at me, and I was too focused on the smell of food to fleck with them. Normally insulting the big dumb bastards was my favorite pastime, but not when I had sweet Val resting on my lap.
She slept curled in a ball, her head on my thigh. Golden hair surrounded us in a shiny cloud. Her features fascinated me. Her pretty mouth with full pink lips. A slender throat. And her breasts. They were large, bigger than those of my brother’s human mate. In fact, all of Val was bigger, which I found highly attractive. I couldn’t let my thoughts drift that far. There was nothing I could do about my desire for her in this cell.
I leaned my head back against the wall and gave myself a moment to miss my brother, Daz. About a dozen rotations ago, the Uldani captured me while I was out hunting. They held me as ransom in a bid to get my clavas—and my brother, as our leader—to deliver a half-dozen human females. One of the females turned out to be Daz’s mate, so of course he wasn’t going to make the delivery. Once his Fra-kee learned about me, she’d insisted they save me, which only resulted in both of them locked up.